The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh

1979
PG
1h 42m

IMDb RATING

5.3/10

1.3K

YOUR RATING

The Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania basketball team is hopeless. Maybe with the aid of an astrologer, and some new astrologically compatible players, they can become winners.

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2 Videos

39 Photos

Basketball Comedy Sport

The Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania basketball team is hopeless. Could they become winners with help from an astrologer and some new astrologically-compatible players?The Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania basketball team is hopeless. Could they become winners with help from an astrologer and some new astrologically-compatible players?The Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania basketball team is hopeless. Could they become winners with help from an astrologer and some new astrologically-compatible players?

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

5.3/10

1.3K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Videos2

Trailer 2:01

Trailer

Clip 2:59

The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh Clip

Clip 2:59

The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh Clip

Photos39

+ 33

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
In "The Book of Basketball", Bill Simmons mentions that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar vanished from the climactic game's fourth quarter without explanation. Simmons wrote that he researched and found two possible explanations: the shooting schedule was far behind, so Kareem had to leave the set and wasn't able to return, or Kareem found out that Julius Erving was being paid more than him and angrily walked off the production. In 2013, Erving revealed that Kareem was fired from the film when he sat in Director of Photography Frank Stanley's chair, Stanley kindly asked Kareem for his seat back, and Kareem responded by heaving the chair across the basketball court.

Goofs
The score before the timeout of the last game was Los Angeles 101, Pittsburgh 91, but when the game resumed, the Pisces made well over ten field goals. Their victory should have been by a double-digit margin.

Quotes
Moses Guthrie: I'm a Pisces, man. We need a little stroke from time to time.

Alternate versions
ABC edited 8 minutes from this film for its 1982 network television premiere.

Connections
Featured in Sneak Previews: French Postcards/The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh/The Marriage of Maria Braun/The Rose/Best Boy (1979)

Soundtracks
A Theme For L.A.'s Team
Music by Thom Bell
Performed by The Thom Bell Orchestra featuring Doc Severinsen

User reviews23

Review

Featured review

4/10

more basketball than movie

The Pittsburgh Pythons is a bad professional basketball team. Moses Guthrie (Julius Erving) is the highly paid star. The team does not get along and some openly want to be traded. Ballboy Tyrone Millman turns to astrologer Mona Mondieu (Stockard Channing). H. S. And Harvey Tilson (Jonathan Winters) are fighting brothers battling over the team. The situation is dire and they have an open tryout.

The lead acting comes from Julius Erving and a kid. The kid is a kid. Dr. J never won an acting award to the surprise of nobody. The astrology premise is mildly humorous for a second. Then it's a lot of new age gibberish. Whatever. The idea is open to the Major League storyline, but the movie does not spend any time on the other players. There isn't anything here other than basketball. It's a lot of basketball and none of it matters. Honestly, I'm only watching this for Dr. J and now I've seen it. This is most interesting for actual players playing the games.